MEPs concerned about EU drone programme

Members of the European Parliament adopted a resolution today (27 February) in Strasbourg expressing concern over increased European Union research and spending on unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

The resolution condemns the illegal use of armed zones by the United States in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it also expresses concern about the EU’s increased interest in using drones.

In November, seven EU countries announced they would try to develop a common system of certification for drones. Three other strands of more limited co-operation were announced at the same time, with varying configurations of states. All the large EU states, including Germany and the UK, are co-operating in one or more of the strands. The UK and France are, separately, co-operating to develop a military drone. At a European Council devoted to defence matters in December, European leaders discussed the idea of making this co-operation part of a European defence strategy.

"European member states are increasingly procuring or developing drones for military use,” said Dutch Liberal MEP Marietje Schaake during a parliament debate on the issue yesterday. “It needs to be crystal clear what we are going to use these weapons for and, above all, how we can make sure that it happens within the right legal and democratic framework."

"The market for armed drones has been rapidly growing in a regulatory lacuna,” said Finnish Green MEP Tarja Cronberg. “Millions of euro of EU funds have already been spent on drone research and there are plans by the Commission and EU governments to develop an EU drone programme. MEPs have today called for the urgent creation of a legal framework which regulates the use of drones and aims at preventing an arms race.”

“There is also a glaring need to integrate armed drones in relevant European and international arms control regimes and to stop research and development on fully automatic weapons which kill without human intervention."

The issue of whether the EU should be pursuing work on non-armed drones has divided MEPs. Such drones are being increasingly deployed in the United States to monitor agricultural activity and watch for illegal farming practices. But this increased use of aerial surveillance on the domestic population has been controversial in America.

In response to a written question from British Liberal MEP Chris Davies, made public today, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) said that, while it has not yet conducted an official assessment of the possible operational benefits of using drones to monitor fishing activities, experts have advised the agency that it could be a good idea.

“Some experts working now in the agency gained previous experience in the definition of the operational requirements of drones,” the response said. “Those experts consider that the drone or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/Systems could provide an outstanding operational contribution to the fisheries control and enforcement.”

The agency said the drones could be used to monitor closed fishing areas and maritime protection zones, idenitification of illegal behaviors like discarding, and watching ‘high risk fishing vessels’.